Obama Plays Golf With Two GOP Senators

President Barack Obama (C) looks on as he plays golf with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) May 6, 2013 at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. (Photo by Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images)

By Jared A. Favole and Kristina Peterson

UPDATE: Sen. Saxby Chambliss shot a hole-in-one on the 11th hole, his staff and the White House confirmed.

WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama played golf Monday with two Republican senators who have expressed interest in striking a bipartisan deal to solve the nation’s fiscal woes.

Mr. Obama played golf at Joint Base Andrews with Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia as well as Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado. The game, which wasn’t on the president’s daily schedule, comes amid Mr. Obama’s stepped-up outreach across the aisle to gain support for his second-term agenda, which includes overhauling the immigration system, changing gun laws and fixing the nation’s fiscal problems.

So who won? A White House official put out a statement this evening saying that Mr. Obama, whose handicap is the highest of the four, paired with Sen. Udall, whose handicap is the lowest. “Sens. Chambliss and Corker, aided by Chambliss’s hole-in-one on the 11th, won the match,” the statement said, adding: “The President enjoyed the chance to spend some time on the golf course with the Senators. Most of the talk centered on the round of golf and not the latest round of legislative negotiations in Congress. The President was pleased that the rain held off, despite the damp forecast.”

Republicans have mostly welcomed Mr. Obama’s attempts to woo them in recent months. As part of the charm offensive he’s had dinner with several groups of Republican lawmakers in recent months and some have walked away saying the dinners were a good first step.

Mr. Corker, in a statement provided by his staff, said: “With the major fiscal issues our country is facing, not to mention foreign relations issues around the world, anytime you can get the president’s ear for a few hours, I think that’s a good thing.”

Mr. Obama uses dinners and now the golf game to press his agenda with lawmakers who are willing to compromise, White House press secretary Jay Carney said. “He’s looking for partners anywhere he can find them, including, you know, on the eighth hole,” Mr. Carney said.

Asked whether Mr. Obama chose the lawmakers because of their votes on gun control, Mr. Carney said no. Messrs. Chambliss and Corker voted against expanding background checks. Mr. Udall was in favor.

The trio of lawmakers started their game at 1:20 p.m. as a small group of reporters and photographers looked on briefly. The president was wearing a blue jacket and baseball hat. Mr. Corker, in a gray sweater and khakis, at one point tossed the president a ball from about and the two later stood together talking as Mr. Udall and Mr. Chambliss took putts.

Mr. Chambliss for years has worked to design a bipartisan deficit-reduction package. That effort, which included lawmakers from both parties, hasn’t led to the sort of grand bargain that Mr. Obama and Republicans are hoping for. Mr. Corker has expressed support for getting a deal done. In March, Mr. Corker said Republicans would be open to raising tax revenue as part of a deal that makes changes to Social Security and Medicare.

Mr. Corker is also the ranking member of the foreign relations committee, and he and Mr. Obama will likely also talk about the bloody conflict in Syria, how to respond to North Korea’s recent threatening statements and Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Obama got an early start to golf season, playing with Tiger Woods and separately teeing it up with Butch Harmon, Mr. Woods’s former swing coach, during a long weekend in February in Florida.

More on the hole-in-one:

Mr. Chambliss said the golfers initially couldn’t tell if his 156-yard shot had gone into the hole.

“Sen. Udall said, ‘You either went in the hole or you went over the green and I think you’re in the hole,’ and the Secret Service said, ‘We think it’s in the hole,’” Mr. Chambliss told reporters at the Capitol on Monday evening.

“We didn’t know until we got up there. I went up and looked in the hole when we got to the green and then everybody went crazy,” Mr. Chambliss said. The other three each shot a three, which is par for that hole, he said.

Mr. Chambliss said Monday’s shot was his second hole-in-one in about 40 years of golfing. His last one came around 23 years ago at the Highlands Country Club.

“This one’s pretty special,” he said, noting that Mr. Obama retrieved his ball from the hole.

“He was generous to do that,” he said. All the golfers later signed a flag for him. Mr. Chambliss said he was prepared to buy his fellow golfers a round of drinks, but the group had to cut its game short on the 15th hole to make it back in time for Senate votes.

The lawmakers said their discussion included a sprinkling of talk about policy issues.

“We talked a little business, but mostly we were just out there,” Mr. Corker told reporters. The conversation topics included Syria, cyber security and the budget, but not immigration, Mr. Chambliss said.

“I told [Mr. Obama] since I made a hole-in-one, they ought to give us everything we want on entitlement reform,” Mr. Chambliss joked.

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